Race-swapping needs to come to an end

Photo courtesy of HBO MAX

With the release of the much-maligned “Velma” show, HBO Max reopened a long debated can of worms of whether to race-swap legacy characters. 

Race-swapping or racebending is the changing of an established character’s race or ethnicity. Although the discourse around race-swapping has picked up over recent years with calls for increased diversity in Hollywood, race-swapping has been a practice for all of history. Since the release of shows and movies like the aforementioned “Velma,” the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” and “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” among others, it’s a good chance to revisit the debate around race-swapping.

In my opinion, if the race, ethnicity or nationality of a character doesn’t affect their identities or storylines then race-swapping is fine. For example, in a show like “The Fairly Odd Parents,” the race of the characters doesn’t have a bearing on the story compared to a show like “The Proud Family,” which had a multitude of storylines revolving around traditional Black family dynamics, segregation and discrimination. 

This doesn’t mean that every piece of media should be forced to address heavy themes of racism, bigotry or intolerance. Personally, I love both of these shows equally, but when a show includes minorities as a part of the main cast and chooses not to address these topics, those characters shouldn’t be criticized for “pandering” or being “forced diversity” or being “political statements.” Minorities in real life aren’t “forced diversity” or “political statements” but rather people who deserve to see themselves represented on the big and small screens alike.

This is an even more ridiculous statement when applied to live-action. There was much contention made around the choice of having Halle Bailey star as Ariel in the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid.” The controversy was stupid as most of it boiled down to Bailey not looking like the “traditional” Ariel, ignoring the fact that she is a decorated actor and singer who may have been the best option to depict the character. The criticism leveled at Bailey was avoided by other actors portraying classic Disney princesses like Lily James’ Cinderella and Emma Watson’s Belle. So where does “Velma” stand in all this?

Mindy Kaling’s “Velma,” which is an adaptation of the famous Scooby-Doo property, is a shit show. I mean, it’s grim how bad the show is. The jokes aren’t funny, the meta humor doesn’t make the show seem clever, it’s annoying how the show falls into the tropes they’re attempting to lampoon and the show is just plain mean. 

It’s understandable why so many Scooby-Doo fans were so turned off to these shows because the characters are nothing like their former adaptations. The titular character, Velma, is a bisexual South Asian American, Norville, formerly Shaggy, is Black, and Daphne is East Asian American. Although I just listed the races and ethnicities of three of the main characters, they don’t matter as long as the writers can capture the essence of the original characters. 

“Velma” isn’t bad because the character’s races are swapped, it’s bad because those characters are written as the most annoying, most insufferable, most spiteful versions of the show. Nor is “Velma” bad because it’s “woke,” as many of the jokes that revolve around race and politics aren’t funny and are borderline offensive.

Earlier in this article, I said that race-swapping has been a historic practice, so to end this article, let’s take a look at some of the more famous examples of race swapping that drew less criticism than some of our previous examples. 

In Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” series, Katniss Everdeen was described as having “black hair and olive skin,” as were many characters in District 12. Many fans of the series speculated that the themes were meant to imply racial segregation. And although Jennifer Lawrence was iconic in the role, I wouldn’t really describe her as having “olive skin.” 

From one “olive-skinned” savior to another, in Revelations 1:14-15 Jesus was described as having hairs, “white as snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace.” Joan E. Taylor used archaeological evidence, historic text, and ancient Egyptian art when writing her book “What Did Jesus Look Like?” Taylor concluded that Jesus likely had brown eyes, dark brown to black hair and olive-brown skin like most Judea and Egyptian people at the time. 

Now I want you to think about the depictions of Jesus you normally see – could they really be described as having “olive-brown skin?”